


Abandon All Hope

by acollectionofdaydreams



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Compliant through 4x13, Fix It, Getting Q Back, Past Domestic Violence, Past Suicide Attempt, Resurrection Quest, Underworld
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 06:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20943902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acollectionofdaydreams/pseuds/acollectionofdaydreams
Summary: Eliot and Julia set out on a quest through their worst memories to bring Quentin back from the Underworld.





	Abandon All Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so basically I watched the movie As Above So Below and got this manic look in my eye and knew I had to write this. So, here we are. That movie was the inspiration for bits of this. I know the show follows Greek mythology for the most part, but like all of my good ideas, I’m making this lore up as I fucking go so welcome to the Hayley Cinematic Universe! Buckle up!!
> 
> ***WARNINGS*** Also, I just wanna stress, even though it’s stated in the story too, that the events Eliot and Julia have to face are in no way an objective moral judgment on them. It’s all based on their own guilt, whether that’s rational or not. So, it’s just about them finding a way to face it and get through it which was difficult to write at times tbh. This is a fairly dark story so please mind the warnings in the tags. It doesn't get too graphic, but there is a description of a suicide attempt and the events leading up to/alluding to some domestic violence. So, just be mindful of that.

The elevator lurched downward, and Eliot threw out one hand to his left to brace himself, colliding with a white wall. He shot a look to his right and found Julia, who was doing the same. He glanced around them and only saw four walls and a door, all painted in a sterile monochrome. How had they ended up here?

His eyes met Julia’s then, and hers widened as they both remembered.

The witch. The quest. The wild, crazy hope. Quentin.

They were on their way to the Underworld. So, just another Tuesday really. Fuck.

“Any guesses about who or what is going to be waiting for us when this door opens?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Julia barked out a short, disbelieving laugh and said, “Not a clue.”

“Great,” he muttered.

Julia wasn’t exactly the person Eliot ever expected to find himself in a life or death situation with to be honest. In fact, she wasn’t really even someone he’d spent any considerable amount of time with, but that was before. Nothing was the way any of them had expected it to be now.

The elevator stopped, and Eliot turned to face the door and squared his shoulders as a bell dinged. Julia’s hand grabbed hold of his for one quick squeeze right as the doors opened.

“Welcome to the Underw… What the fuck are you two doing here?”

Eliot waved and smiled.

He said, “Hi Penny, long time no see.”

Penny’s mouth gaped open like a fish as he looked between the two of them. Then his brain apparently started working again because he frantically glanced left and right over his shoulders before grabbing them and yanking them out of the elevator. 

“Shit, follow me,” he said quietly.

Eliot tripped over his own feet and landed in an eerily quiet white corridor. Julia caught him by the elbow and motioned toward Penny with her head, who was already several feet ahead of them.

“Come on, we better move,” she said.

Eliot straightened and shook off her hand before walking forward after him.

“Good to know he’s still a ray of fucking sunshine,” he mumbled.

Julia snorted next to him and shushed him as they reached the open door Penny was motioning them toward. As soon as they stepped inside, Penny closed and locked the door behind them.

“Nice office,” Eliot surmised as he looked around the room.

Penny circled around the desk to face them.

“Again, what the _fuck_ are you two doing here?” he asked. “You’re not supposed to be dead yet.”

“We’re not,” Julia said. 

“Not technically,” Eliot added.

Julia stepped forward.

“We heard there was a way to reverse a death on Earth,” she said, “if you agree to a set of trials down here.”

Penny stared at her blankly for approximately two seconds before looking away and rolling his eyes.

“Let me guess, you’re here for Coldwater,” he said, his face turned halfway into a grin.

“The very one,” Eliot agreed.

Penny rubbed a hand over his face and laughed.

“Yeah, I had a feeling it’d be you two,” he said.

Eliot’s patience was quickly coming to an end, and he opened his mouth to say as much when Julia held out a hand in front of him. 

She asked, “Can you help us or not?”

Penny took a seat behind his desk and motioned them toward the chairs in front of him. They remained standing.

“I can help,” he said, “but this is an old, arcane agreement you’re asking to enter into. It’s been deemed unethical by more than one scholar, and most Librarians wouldn’t even agree to let you try. It’s not going to be easy.”

“Never thought it would be,” Eliot snapped.

Penny met him with a serious look, and Julia brushed past him to sit in one of the chairs and crossed her arms.

“Let’s get started,” she said.

Penny looked between them again before reaching into his desk and pulling out a manila folder. Honestly, was everything in the Library as boring and mundane as possible? Eliot glanced around the room they were in again while Penny shuffled through a stack of papers. It was dimly lit with mood lighting and a lot bigger than he’d expected from an Underworld slave’s office. A lot cushier too. 

“What exactly is your job down here?” he asked.

“Secrets taken to the grave,” Penny answered.

He found the papers he was looking for and closed the folder.

Eliot asked, “So, you saw Q when he..?” 

Penny’s features softened as he looked at them.

“Yeah, I did,” he said. “He was pretty messed up, man. I’m, uh, not supposed to tell you this, but we were there at the bonfire. He wouldn’t move on without seeing you all one last time.”

Eliot felt a lump forming in his throat and swallowed around it. Julia reached for his hand again and gripped it tightly.

“Well, let’s get this show on the road then,” he said, the words coming out rougher than he’d intended.

“Yeah, alright,” Penny agreed.

He placed a piece of paper and pen in front of each of them.

“So, I’m guessing you know the basics,” he said, “but I’m obligated to go over them anyway.”

Julia read the words on the top of the page aloud, “As Above, So Below.”

“Yeah, that’s the gist of it,” Penny explained. “It’s sort of a trial of things that have happened to you throughout your life. Mistakes, regrets, things you’d rather forget. That sort of thing. The theory is if you can fix them down here, you’ve earned the right to the life you wish to live above. You’ll each face three of these trials.”

“Oh, I’ve already been through my worst moments montage once this year, so this should be a breeze,” Eliot quipped.

He reached for the pen, but Penny placed a hand over his to stop him. He looked up.

“Not like this you haven’t,” he said. His eyes flitted around the room before he sighed and turned back to face them. “Look, some of the shit you’re gonna see in there? It’s bad. Most of it probably isn’t even your fault. That’s not the point. The point is you feel guilty about it, and this test is going to use it against you. So, I need you both to be damn sure before you sign that dotted line. If you don’t make it out of this, both of you end up trapped in a loop of your worst memories, and Quentin stays dead.”

“We know,” Julia said.

She reached for a pen and signed quickly, shoving the paper towards Penny without a second glance at it. She looked at Eliot, and he pulled his hand out from under Penny’s to do the same. Penny stamped and filed both of their contracts before turning back to them.

“Right this way then,” he said.

He led them back out into the hallway, and they followed through what felt like a maze of door after door. Eliot was starting to seriously wonder if getting to the right door was part of the trial itself when Penny stopped. He unlocked a very nondescript looking white door and pushed it open.

“This is as far as I can take you,” he said.

Julia smiled at him and said, “Thanks, Penny.”

“You’re welcome,” he said.

He looked at her then back at Eliot with a small smile.

“I’m rooting for you all,” he said, “and not just because I don’t want to deal with Margo storming the Underworld if you fuck up.”

Eliot laughed dryly and nodded at him.

He said, “Well, for all of our sakes, let’s hope we make it out of this.”

Penny clapped him on the shoulder as he turned to leave, which left just him and Julia standing in front of the open door.

“I guess we just go in then?” she asked.

He shrugged and said, “Guess so.”

Julia walked inside first, and Eliot followed. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but it definitely hadn’t been an empty conference room.

“Well, this is uneventful,” he said.

“Wait, look,” Julia said.

Eliot turned to see her make her way to a door in the corner of the room that looked very much like a supply closet. But this was the Underworld, wasn’t it? Nothing was as it seemed.

“Huh, what do you know?” he said, walking over to stand behind her and look at it. 

There was a plaque on the door.

“_Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate_,” Julia read. She paused. “Wait, is that…?”

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,” Eliot translated, “Good ol’ Dante.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Julia said.

Eliot quipped, “That’s not ominous at all.”

She shot a grin at him over her shoulder before turning the knob and opening the door.

“Here goes nothing,” she said.

They stepped through the door and immediately onto the middle of a suburban street. Eliot staggered a bit as he looked around. In every direction, he saw nothing but rows of houses in a perfectly middle class neighborhood.

“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” he muttered.

“No, we’re not.” Julia agreed. “We’re in New Jersey.”

She took off toward the house directly in front of them, and Eliot rushed to follow her.

“Wait, what?” he asked.

“This is Q’s house,” she explained.

She burst through the front door just like she lived there, and Eliot supposed that probably was the way they’d grown up. She and Quentin had been best friends basically since birth. He followed her through the very 90’s suburban chic decorated house and up the stairs to the bedroom at the end of the hall. She paused outside the door, and Eliot came to a stop behind her.

Before them was a teenaged Julia and Quentin. Julia was standing to the side of the bed, all dressed up with her hands on her hips as she stared at him.

“Q, you promised you’d come with me to Casey’s party tonight,” she pouted.

Real Julia tensed beside Eliot. 

“Fuck, not this,” she said.

Before Eliot could ask what she meant, the scene continued in front of them.

Teenaged Quentin was just a tiny little thing. He was sitting with his back pressed against the headboard of his bed and his knees pulled up to his chest. He dug his fingers into the loose fabric of his plaid pajama pants and furrowed his brow.

“I’m sorry, I just really don’t feel up to it,” he said quietly.

Teenaged Julia huffed. She stared at him for a moment before dropping her hands and taking a step towards him.

“Fine, I’ll just stay here with you then,” she said. 

Quentin sighed.

“No, I’d feel bad if you missed the party. Just go, Jules.”

They met each other in a staring match that lasted a good few seconds before Julia leaned in to kiss his cheek.

“Okay, but it’d be more fun if you were there, for the record,” she said.

He gave her a small smile as she left the room and bounced away down the stairs. For a minute or two after that, nothing happened. Quentin just remained there, curled in on himself, and stared at the foot of the bed. Then he took a deep breath and stood up. He walked right past Eliot and Julia and into the bathroom down the hall. He went straight to the medicine cabinet and pulled out a bottle.

“No!” Julia shrieked.

Eliot was a little slow on the uptake, but when he got what was happening, his knees nearly buckled underneath him. Julia turned around and buried her face in his shirt, tears streaking down her cheeks, as Quentin started counting out pills into his hand.

“I can’t watch this,” she cried, and Eliot reached up to hug her tightly to him. 

He felt utterly lost, frozen in place as he remembered Quentin at the mosaic telling him about his first attempt. He’d been sixteen. 

Muffled against his chest, Julia said, “I can’t change it, so what’s the point in making us watch?”

That got the wheels turning in Eliot’s head. This was all part of a test, and Penny had said they had to fix their regrets down here before they could get what they want up there. As above, so below. What was that full quote again?

“As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul…,” he mumbled.

Then it clicked. They could control this, and they had to change something. 

He grabbed Julia’s shoulders and pushed her off of him as he steered them away from the bathroom door. Her face was tear-stained, and she was staring at the wall behind him, like it might not be happening if she couldn’t see it.

“Julia, look at me,” he said. When she turned her eyes to his, he continued, “This is part of your test, and you _can_ change it. That’s why we’re here, right? You feel like you could have stopped Q if you had stayed?”

She nodded and wiped at her eyes, smudging her mascara in the process. Eliot reached out to gently fix it for her.

“Whether that’s true or not doesn’t matter,” he said softly, “What matters is that what you need to do to fix this regret is to change it so that you stay.”

“I don’t know how!” she exclaimed.

Eliot didn’t know either, but time was ticking, and they really weren’t about to fail the very first test if he could help it.

“Okay, let’s try something,” he said, moving his hands down from her shoulders to her forearms in a somewhat comforting gesture. “Close your eyes, and just picture it going differently. Picture yourself staying.”

She nodded and did as he said. Eliot took a step back and watched for one, two, three seconds before the whole universe around them shifted. They were once again standing in Quentin’s room, and teenaged Julia was pouting at the side of his bed. 

Instead of leaving though, she said, “I’d rather stay with you anyway.”

She crawled into bed beside him and tucked herself into his side. 

“Oh my god, it worked,” said the Julia beside Eliot.

“It worked,” Eliot repeated. 

And then, before they could celebrate their victory for too long, the scene changed. To rural Indiana.

Eliot groaned, “_Really?_” 

Specifically, they were standing on Eliot’s parents’ farm. He closed his eyes for a moment as his senses acclimated. Mooing cows, the smell of fresh manure in the fields, and a sense of utter dread filled his mind.

“Uh, where are we?” Julia asked beside him.

He opened his eyes, horrified to find they were indeed still standing there, and turned to her.

“Whatever you see here, you are not allowed to repeat to another soul. Promise me,” he demanded.

She nodded at him wide-eyed, so he exhaled heavily.

“We’re in Indiana at the farm I grew up on,” he explained.

She was quiet for a moment, then she simply said, “Oh.”

He huffed, “Yeah. Now let’s go see what fresh hell awaits us inside because we know how this game goes now.”

The screen door banged behind them as they walked inside the old farmhouse. It had always been small and cramped between Eliot, his parents, and his brothers. It was what they made do with though because that’s what poor people in rural Indiana did. 

The sound of glass shattering rang through the house from the kitchen, and Eliot flinched. As if it were clockwork, the yelling followed right after.

“I’m almost 18 years old! You can’t make me do anything,” a teenaged Eliot asserted boldly from his place at the side door of the house.

“Oh? You think so, boy?” his father challenged. “You think you’re all grown up now and don’t have to listen to your parents anymore? Tell him, Evelyn. Tell him he’s not going anywhere with that Miller boy.”

Eliot’s mother didn’t look up from the vegetables she was cutting on the kitchen island. She sniffled though, clearly fighting back tears.

Teenaged Eliot took the moment of silence for the opportunity it was and went straight for the door.

“Son, if you walk out that door, you’re gonna regret it,” his father warned.

He took one look at his father and then promptly left. 

His father kicked a chair, knocking it over onto the ground.

“Why the fuck do you never back me up with him?” he bellowed, turning around to face his mother. She flinched but didn’t look up.

Julia nudged Eliot, and he nearly stumbled with how caught up he’d been in the scene.

“When I got home the next day, she had a black eye,” he said quietly.

“Eliot, do something,” she urged. “Now.”

He growled under his breath as his father took a step towards his mother and shut his eyes. Then everything fell silent. He opened his eyes to see the scene starting over with his teenage self at the door. Instead of arguing with his father though, he brushed past him with a huff and stormed up the stairs. Then the universe shifted and dropped them inside an empty warehouse.

“Fuck, Eliot,” Julia breathed beside him.

“Don’t mention it. Seriously,” he said.

She touched his arm, softly, and said, “Whatever happened to your mom wasn’t your fault. Even if you left, your dad’s the one who…”

“I know that, now,” he said. He swallowed roughly and lifted his head. He said, “Let’s just keep going.”

They walked around a corner in the warehouse to find a room set up like someone was doing a ritual. Julia took off walking quickly as soon as they took in the scene.

Marina Andrieski was standing in the middle of a summoning circle, with Julia and the Beast standing off to the side behind her.

“I know this one,” real Julia huffed.

She brushed right by her past self and Martin to stand in front of Marina, who was half-heartedly reciting a spell.

Shakily, but determined, she said, “Marina, forget the summoning. It’s not worth it. Go home now.”

She closed her eyes, and the room fell silent. They watched as past Julia approached Marina just as she opened her mouth to start the spell.

“You know what? I think we’re good here. You should just go,” she said.

Marina groaned and said, “Thank god. Do me a favor, and never call me again. Bye!”

She turned on her heels and left the room.

“That was deceptively easy,” Eliot said.

“Yeah, well, let’s just say I’ve thought about that one a few times over the last few years,” Julia replied.

The universe shifted, and they were standing in an open clearing. In Fillory.

“Oh, shit,” Eliot muttered.

“Papa!”

He turned his head to see a young Teddy burst out of the cottage and run towards past Eliot, who was approaching from the edge of the mosaic. Or was it technically future Eliot, since he was older here? Whatever, alternate timeline shit was confusing. He focused again to see himself set down his bags from the market and scoop Teddy up into his arms.

“I missed you, Papa!” Teddy squealed.

“I missed you too,” other Eliot said. “Every single second I was away.”

“Did you miss me too?”

Eliot turned his head and sucked in a breath as he watched Quentin walk out through the door. Teddy wiggled his way out of Eliot’s arms and ran off to dig through the abandoned sacks. Other Eliot, however, met Quentin with a quick peck on the lips and said, “Every single second.”

He’d forgotten she was there until Julia stepped up beside him.

“So, this is the mosaic,” she said.

Eliot couldn’t respond. Instead, he turned his attention back to Teddy because he was remembering what day this was. It was the day Teddy broke his arm.

“You want to help me put this stuff away?” Other Eliot asked Quentin.

“Sure,” he said. He turned to Teddy and said, “Stay where we can see you while we’re inside, please.”

“Yes, Dad,” Teddy promised.

Other Eliot gave the young boy a smile before grabbing the bags and following Quentin inside. Teddy sat down at the table outside at first. He doodled for a few seconds on a piece of scratch paper one of them had given him. Then he looked up, and his eyes locked on the ladder at the edge of the mosaic. Icy fingers clutched at Eliot’s heart.

“We were gone maybe two minutes,” Eliot said. “We could see him from the kitchen through the window, but we must have turned our backs at just the wrong time.”

“Eliot, you have to stop it,” Julia reminded him.

Just as Teddy stood to make his way over to the ladder, Eliot closed his eyes. When he opened them again, other Eliot poked his head around the cottage door and called for Teddy to come inside. Teddy changed directions and ran inside to his parents instead.

Eliot exhaled, and Julia’s hand came to rest on his back. 

“He was a cute kid,” she said. “Looked just like Q when we were little.”

Eliot felt a bittersweet smile tugging at his lips.

“Yeah, he was,” he agreed.

Then the scene changed again, and they were standing inside Kady’s penthouse. This was regret number three for Julia. The big one, Eliot assumed. He looked around, trying to gauge what might be happening. Then he caught sight of himself, except it wasn’t him. It was the monster in his body, and he was stalking towards Quentin. 

“You kill Eliot, and you can forget about us helping you,” Quentin said as he rose from the floor amongst a pile of broken furniture.

“Eliot, Eliot, Eliot,” the monster chanted. “Why do you care about him so much?”

“Because I do,” Quentin answered.

Eliot gulped as his eyes slid shut in a heavy blink. He’d heard Julia’s version of this story already, but seeing it play out was another thing entirely. Quentin was unhinged. Reckless. So clearly at the end of his rope.

“You kill him, and we are done,” Quentin continued. “I swear to god, I am serious. I will abandon you, and I will die trying to burn you to the ground.”

The monster approached until he was only inches away from Quentin’s face.

“That’s cute,” he spat, “but I’m strong.”

He brought up Eliot’s hand to grip Quentin’s throat as other Julia watched from beside them in horror. Why the fuck hadn’t she done anything? How had it gotten to this point?

_Oh_, he realized. That was why they were here. He turned to look at Julia next to him, and she squeezed her eyes shut. The scene changed, and other Julia jumped between Quentin and the monster as he approached.

“Hoolia, get out of my way,” the monster growled.

She walked backwards until she was fully shielding Quentin.

“No,” she said.

Then the room disappeared, and they landed in an ornately decorated hallway.

Julia placed her hand against the wall and leaned sideways into it.

“I was indestructible,” she said. “Even though I’d lost my magic, the monster couldn’t kill me. I should have protected him.”

“Maybe, but we’ve got to keep moving now if we want to get the real Q back,” Eliot reasoned.

“No, you don’t get it,” Julia said. She closed her eyes and breathed. “I saw how bad he was, and I didn’t do a damn thing, Eliot. If I had done literally anything at all when he needed it, he might not be dead now.”

He argued, “We don’t know if that’s true or not.”

He was half arguing with himself as well, but this really wasn’t the time to let that show. Maybe Quentin would have been alive when he woke up in the hospital if their friends had given a shit about him. Maybe he wouldn’t have felt the need to sacrifice himself. Maybe Eliot would have done a thing or two differently if he’d been there. 

But no. What’s done was done, and they had one more trial left to fix it. 

So, he grabbed Julia’s arm and reluctantly guided her down the hall of what was definitely Castle Whitespire. Eliot had known what this memory would be from the start. _He had a proof of concept for it_, he thought bitterly. That’s why he wasn’t surprised at all to find himself in the throne room in front of Margo’s wedding arch watching himself and Quentin talk.

He and Julia had gotten really honest with each other about a few things the night before they figured out about this quest. They’d really only been acquaintances before, at best. However after Quentin’s death, they started gravitating towards each other more and more often. Maybe it was because they were the only ones who really understood each other. Bonded by a shared grief for the most important person in their lives. Whatever the reason, they’d spent several quiet nights getting high in Eliot’s bedroom at the penthouse and talking. Mostly, it was about Quentin. Good memories, bad memories, and everything in between. The night before they’d set out on this quest, he’d told her about the mosaic and everything that followed. It had felt remarkably good at the time to just tell someone what happened. She’d agreed it was stupid of him, but he also thought maybe she understood him. Now at least, it saved him some time explaining.

They walked forward until they stood right in front of Eliot and Quentin of the past. 

“Did it happen?” other Eliot asked.

“Fifty years,” Quentin marveled.

“It happened,” other Eliot said.

There was a silence, and Julia gripped his hand. He squeezed back.

“It was kind of beautiful,” Quentin said.

Other Eliot agreed, “It really was.”

“I know this sounds dumb, but,” Quentin laughed, “--us, we. Think about it. We work. We know it because we lived it. Who gets that kind of proof of concept?”

Other Eliot smiled incredulously as he sat up and looked at him. He said, “We were just injected with a half century of emotions, so I get that maybe you’re not thinking clearly.”

“No, I’m just saying, what if we gave it a shot?” Quentin paused, then asked, “Would that be that crazy?” 

Other Eliot looked down and Quentin continued, “Why the fuck not?”

Julia squeezed his hand again. She whispered, “Eliot, time to change it.”

He gave his own terrified face one last look, and then he closed his eyes. 

When he opened them again, Quentin repeated, “What if we gave it a shot?”

Other Eliot smiled at him and reached out his hand to brush Quentin’s hair behind his ear. 

“It might not work here,” he argued.

“Maybe not, but I love you, El,” Quentin said, “and I think we owe it to ourselves to try.”

Other Eliot stared at him for a moment before leaning in to capture his lips with a sure kiss.

Eliot turned around, dragging Julia with him, and paced out into the hallway again. He let go of her hand and pressed his forehead against the stone wall.

“Fuck!” he shouted.

Julia approached slowly and placed her hand on the middle of his back. He sighed as she started rubbing small circles into the tight muscles there.

“Well, that was it,” he said, turning around to face her. “So what the fuck now?”

They both looked up and down the hall, but nothing had changed. Eliot was feeling a little manic. What if they’d somehow gotten it all wrong?

“Is anyone listening up there?” he yelled to the ceiling. “We passed your stupid tests, so it’s time to hold up your end of the bargain!”

“Eliot,” Julia said.

He looked towards her voice and found her staring at the ground a few feet away. She pointed, and he followed her finger to a glowing golden door that had just appeared. On the floor.

“Do we open it?” he asked.

She shrugged, “I guess.” 

Eliot crouched down to the floor and opened the door, surprised to find that it swung outward. Julia came to his side to look over his shoulder through the door. Except what they were seeing didn’t make any sense.

“Tell me you see the sky right now too,” Eliot said.

“Yep,” Julia agreed.

He stuck his hand through the door and felt an unseasonably warm air envelope it. He glanced at Julia again, and at her shrug, he maneuvered around until he could slide his body through the opening. It was an awkward shuffle because he ended up having to rotate himself around until he was sitting upright on the grass at Brakebills, which had definitely been upside down for him a few seconds ago. Julia followed, and he reached out a hand to help her up. The door disappeared.

“As above, so below,” she mused once she’d gotten through. “Wonder if they ever get tired of being so literal.”

Eliot laughed and nodded at her. Then he stopped short at the sound of a voice.

“Jules? Eliot?”

Both of their heads whipped around, and standing in front of them a few feet away was Quentin Coldwater.

“Oh my god, Q,” Julia breathed.

She leapt to her feet and ran to meet him at the same time he opened his arms. They fell together in a tangle of limbs, and both of them laughed as they clung to each other.

“What the hell happened?” Quentin asked. He stuttered, “I was just, uh, dead I think? And then I was here?”

Eliot rose to his feet and walked over towards them.

“We saved your ass is what happened,” he smiled.

Quentin caught his eyes over Julia’s shoulder and froze as if he’d forgotten Eliot was there until that moment. Eliot lifted a hand to give him a small wave.

“Hi,” he said.

Julia gave him a final squeeze before smiling between him and Eliot and stepping to the side. It only took a few seconds for them to close the distance when Quentin lurched forward towards him. He landed right in Eliot’s arms and tucked himself into his chest.

“Oh, Q,” Eliot sighed.

He brought his arms up to wrap one around Quentin’s waist and place the other on the back of his head, holding him against him. Quentin tightened his grip on Eliot’s middle, and they exhaled together. It felt like close wasn’t close enough in that moment.

“I’m so happy to see you,” Eliot said.

“You too, El,” Quentin replied.

“And, for the record,” he said quietly, muffled into Quentin’s hair, “I’m totally in love with you.”

Eliot waited for one or two seconds for his response. Then, of all the things he could have done, Quentin laughed. Eliot furrowed his eyebrows and took a step back to look at him.

“Yeah, I know,” Quentin smiled.

“Wha--you know?” Eliot sputtered.

“Yeah, I kind of figured that out down there,” he said. He grinned. “I talked to Arielle.”

“Oh, tell me Arielle didn’t read me for filth,” Eliot said, a smile creeping its way onto his face.

“She totally did,” Quentin said smugly. “She reminded me what an idiot you can be, and she told me to tell you she said that too.”

Eliot’s face broke out into a full smile then, and he reached out to softly place his hand on Quentin’s cheek.

“Well, my idiocy established, how do you feel about another fifty years of putting up with me?” he asked.

Quentin smiled, and Julia whistled from wherever she’d gone. 

“Get a room!” she called. 

Quentin held out a hand to flip her off and laughed.

“Why the fuck not?” he asked Eliot.

And since he didn’t have a single reason not to, Eliot kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments are appreciated always, and you can find me on tumblr at eliotapologist!


End file.
